


Somewhere Between

by fanflock



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Gen, Gender Identity, Genderfluid Character, Non-binary character, One Shot, One Shot Collection, Trans Character
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-21
Updated: 2016-03-21
Packaged: 2018-05-28 02:40:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 794
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6311953
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fanflock/pseuds/fanflock
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For Marinette, it starts with pinned up hair and a feeling she can't quite place.<br/>For Adrien, it starts with skirts and other clothing he's not allowed to wear.</p><p>Gender is more difficult than either of them expected. Good thing they're already used to having secret identities.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Somewhere Between

For Marinette, it starts with her hair.

She sweeps all her hair up in an old black beanie one day while working on a particularly finicky project, just to get it out of the way. After she’s done, she catches her reflection in the mirror and just stares for a while, the gears in her brain slowly beginning to turn.

The second time, she sits herself down with a box of bobbie pins and a new hat that hasn’t been irreversibly coated in thread and fluff from a life inside her fabric bins. She ties her hair into lots of little pigtails, pinning them flat against her head before carefully placing the slouchy beanie over top, adding a few more pins for good measure, leaving just her fringe and the baby hairs on the back of her neck still showing.

Sitting there on her floor, hair all hidden and her chest drowning in a hand-me-down hoodie two sizes too large, Marinette looks at herself and feels… nice. Light. Like there had been something wrong and she’d just fixed it. Maybe not entirely fixed, but it was a start.

She redoes it for school the next day (proving to herself that she doesn’t need akuma attacks in order to be perpetually late) and of course Alya comments on it.

“I didn’t chop it off, I swear! I just, wanted to see how it would look.” She smiles nervously, looking for approval in her closest friend. Alya gives her another once over and smiles.

“It looks nice, but you could make anything look cute,” she teases, pinching her cheek lightly. Marinette smiles even as something inside her twists. Cute. Cute was good. Cute was a compliment. So why did it make her feel weird.

Before she gets a chance to figure it out, she catches sight of Adrien leaning against a wall across the quad. Chatting with Nino, the sun catching in his hair and lighting up his eyes, Adrien looks… beautiful. Incredible. Cute.

That fixes it. Adrien was a boy. Adrien was cute. Maybe one day, Marinette could be something like that too.

\--

For Adrien, it starts with fashion.

It’s not surprising honestly. He’s been immersed in the fashion world since before he could even remember. He had been dressed in designer clothes since kindergarten. His mother had always worn the most beautiful of dresses. Now modelling, he was surrounded by the latest and greatest from his father’s lines and more.

His partner today was a pretty girl from the south of France. She was modelling an outfit from his father’s new fall fashion line; an off-white blouse and amber skirt that complimented her dark skin perfectly. The skirt was made of some flowy fabric (chiffon? Georgette? No amount of modelling would ever help him learn actual fabric names, apparently) that swirled beautifully with every movement. He wanted to run his fingers through it, but maybe when it wasn’t being worn by his fellow model.

After the shoot is over and he’s no longer wearing clothes that cost more than his yearly school fees, he sneaks over to the girl’s clothing rack to get a closer look. The skirt was as lovely to the touch as he thought, as were the many others. The blouses were equally as nice, adorned with gold buttons and draping delicately from their hangers.

“I think your rack is over there Agreste.” Adrien nearly jumps as a head pops out from the other side of the clothes rack. His partner of the day smiles at him, teasing, not mocking.

“Yeah, I was just being nosy. Believe it or not, this is the only time I get to sneak a peek at the new designs.” She smiles, and picks up one of the cardigans, running her fingers over the coarse fabric.

“I don’t usually wear clothes like this, but these designs _are_ beautiful,” she comments. He smiles back, picking out the skirt from earlier and holding it up to himself.

“What do you think?” he asks coyly, drawing out his Chat Noir side to calm the churning in his gut. She gives him a once over, and giggles, good natured, not cruel.

“Well, that draping is to die for, but I don’t think it’s quite your colour,” she says with a smile. “Maybe if they make it in green.” He laughs with her, putting the skirt back while his stomach does backflips. It’s only with his years of self-control and face full of makeup that he doesn’t go bright red considering the possibility. He runs his fingers over the fabric once more before he leaves, memorising the way it slips from his fingers.

He thinks about the model’s kind eyes and honest words, and thinks maybe one day… maybe. One day.

**Author's Note:**

> I just got into Ladybug I have a lot of emotions about Marinette and Adrien being genderfluid/non-binary/etc.
> 
> I've got a lot of scenes in mind for this story, but I'm super busy and wanna keep fanfic as a 'for fun' thing, so this will be a bunch of one shots rather than a chaptered story. Tags will be added as they become relevant. Hope you enjoy it!


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